I'm building a deck from scratch and also I'm currently in Bahia, Brazil so it's pretty basic stuff here. Joist hangers don't exist, no decking screws and even cut to size treated pine is a thing of the future. I have access to treated pine logs which vary in diameter a fair bit but i digress. my issue is... if i measure down from my desired surface level, 2cm for my decking and a further 7cm for my hardwood [and i mean very hardwood] joists, I'm down 9cm, and I really only have about another 6cm more before I'm touching dirt. I guess I need some kind of bearers but do they have to be sitting on stumps set in concrete? Could I just lay some treated pine logs down on the ground as bearers? Let's say i could get 10cm diameter logs, i'd make a little trench for them, perhaps throw a bit of sand under them and then make sure the tops of them were at the right level [9cm down from my tiled verandah]. I'd really like to know if this would be a viable solution or just plain wrong!
thanku, Graham.